U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,421 issued July 26, 1988 to George D. Margolin and now assigned to the assignee of the present application, describes a printer which employs a random bundle of optical fibers. The bundle has its fibers arranged in a linear array in a first face of the bundle and in an area array in a second face. The linear face is abutted against or in close proximity to an electrostatic belt, or like photo-optic medium, defining a linear segment across the belt. The area face is in juxtaposition with a light source operative to direct an electron beam to a sequence of positions of the face at which light is generated. A cathode ray tube (CRT) is described as the light source and the beam is directed at the CRT face plate so that the phosphor there emits light into a sequence of fiber ends (pixels) in the second face of the bundle to correspond to the proper sequence of fiber ends in the linear face, to faithfully transmit an image through the bundle.
There is no preestablished relationship between the fiber ends in the linear or first face of the bundle and the fiber ends in the area or second face of the bundle. The proper relationship between the position of the end of each fiber in the linear face and the position of the opposite end of each fiber in the area face is determined by an initialization procedure in which an address string is determined for positions on the faceplate of the CRT at which a sequence of light signals is to be generated to faithfully reproduce a stored image for the linear segment coupled to the linear end. A two-dimensional image is constructed on the belt by selectively discharging the belt via the transmitted light signals, linear segment after linear segment.